Why you should sack your client

Some clients just stink

The most heart rending calls I get from my clients are when they are deeply unhappy with one of their own clients. They feel sick every time they hear them on the phone because the call is usually bringing a deadline forward, changing the scope of the project, making unreasonable demands or haggling over an invoice.

It’s impossible to do good work under these circumstances and even if good work gets done, it doesn’t get recognised.

Working ‘just’ for money isn’t enough.

That’s all very well for me to say, I hear you cry, but its true. If you do good work (and a bad client can cause you to doubt this, but that’s another story) you deserve praise and satisfaction as well as money for your work.

Why would you picnic near a cow pat?

You have a great client and a client from hell. Which one do you spend most time thinking about, most time trying to please, most time worrying what they think of you? The wrong one, that’s who!

This is the equivalent of putting your picnic blanket next to a cow pat when you could put it next to patch of flowers! Why sit in a pile of manure when you could be sitting in clover?

The double bind is that while you spend so much time on the bad client, your good clients could feel neglected. The time you spend trying to appease a hopeless cause could be spent finding more good clients.

Its not all their fault

What are your terms and conditions like? Do they give clear specifications about how you work, what you expect from your client and what they can expect from you? If not that’s easily sorted. Less easy is how you handle ‘scope creep’ – the extras that a client asks you to do without charging – but once you’ve got that sorted in your head and know how to value your work, its much easier to deal with – before it becomes an issue.

Time to call time

If you have a client that takes up too much head space, makes you feel sick and is stopping you from getting on with the work you love to do, the first step is to tell them that you have a problem with them and invoke your T&Cs. If that doesn’t work there’s only one solution.

Sack them.

Walk away from them.

Don’t look back.

Spend the time you have available finding clients who love you.

To avoid this happening in the first place read When to turn down a client

If you’d like to talk about how to grow your business with the clients you deserve, get in touch

11 replies
  1. Miltoncontact
    Miltoncontact says:

    I resolved to do this with a lucrative client recently and we parted amicably, apart from the last invoice I’m still waiting to be paid for!

  2. AnnHawkins
    AnnHawkins says:

    Miltoncontact Ah, yes. Maybe I should add a caveat …. sack them after they’ve paid!

  3. Brian Williamson
    Brian Williamson says:

    I came very cl;ose to sacking a client recently and I might yet, but her parents (also clients) are nice people. Just seems she has forgotten her manners

  4. Neil Shillito
    Neil Shillito says:

    Been there, done that. Very sensible, very necessary and good for both parties although obviously can be difficult to broach. Also have turned down prospective clients because what they want I can’t/won’t deliver.

  5. Ann Hawkins
    Ann Hawkins says:

    Thanks Neil. Inevitably the worst situations seem to happen when people ignore their instincts and “only do it for the money”. I did have a client report that after she’d sacked a particularly difficult company they tried a few other people then came back to her with a different attitude.

  6. James McEvoy
    James McEvoy says:

    I recently had a problem on a job. Someone went through a water pipe but it was my job and my client so it was my problem. I got people to start fixing it. Turned out to be a nightmare as the place was not built to a good standard and we found more leaks and problems. Sadly it was a client who wants it all done to a high finish, has anxiety and ocd.
    I’ve never had a problem with them before. Some people can be impossible to please at times. I wanted to make sure it was all sorted for the client. So much so I ended up paying for other trades on the job so they wouldn’t have to. The job cost me money in the end.
    The demands got too much and I offered to part company and walk away. I regret not going through my insurance. I will next time.

    But thankfully they came back to me and said they didn’t want to lose me as a friend or tradesperson. That was massive for me.
    It melted my heart.

    Moving forward I try to put effort into the nice customers. Prompt payers, less drama ones.

    It’s a hard juggle, but juggle we all do.

  7. Ann Hawkins
    Ann Hawkins says:

    Thanks for sharing your experience James. As you say, it can be tough and I think we all try our best and when that’s appreciated, as your client obviously did in the end, its worth it.
    It’s the ones who don;t appreciate people, not matter how hard they try, that are not worth keeping.

  8. Regina Ray
    Regina Ray says:

    I was reading and thinking – sometimes is just because we did not say clearly how we work.. So relieved to read the last part :) And yes: we love what we do and we should create with joy

  9. Jane Horwood
    Jane Horwood says:

    The money is never enough to compensate for the pain and hassle of a bad client. I have sacked a few in my time but fortunately the majority of my clients I work with are appreciative and great to work with. I had a very odd experience recently when I was accidentally copied in on an email between 2 people from an organisation who had asked for my help and was keen to work with me. The project would have been worth quite a lot of money and was really interesting but the tone of the email and the content therein made me rethink my desire to work with them and I politely declined. They obviously didn’t realise this faux pas and were shocked and disappointed by my decision. A lucky escape methinks.

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